


to tell you the things (you can't tell yourself)

by LiveLaughLovex



Category: The Code (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, Mentions of John "Abe" Abraham/Alex Hunt, Past Harper Li/Bard (The Code), Post-Episode: S01e10 Secret Squirrel, Season/Series 01 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 03:11:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19737148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: “You are who you are, and who you are is a good lawyer, and a good Marine, and, most importantly, a good person."Post s01e10, "Secret Squirrel." Harper and Abe discuss her breakup with Bard, his relationship with Alex Hunt, and how to make the hard choices for the right reasons.





	to tell you the things (you can't tell yourself)

**Author's Note:**

> A friend can tell you the things you don't want to tell yourself. - Frances Ward Weller

“Hey,” Abe greeted the following evening, flashing Harper an easy smile as he slid into the booth opposite her. “Everything okay? You were extremely vague over the phone, and I’ve never known you to be vague about anything. Kind of worried me, honestly.”

“I’m sorry,” Harper replied quietly, absentmindedly picking at the checked tablecloth in front of them. “Thanks for coming, by the way,” she added. “I’m sure you were busy, what with it being the weekend and all…”

“Harper, don’t worry about it,” he assured her. “It’s fine. Now, tell me what’s going on.”

“I took Captain Glass up on his offer,” she informed him evenly. “SERE training starts in six weeks, lasts three. It’ll be hard, but it’s – it’s a good opportunity for me and my career, so…”

“It will be,” Abe agreed immediately. “It’s a great opportunity, and it’ll open a lot of doors for you, but… your wedding’s in three months. The course won’t finish in time for you to…” He trailed off as realization struck. “Ah. _That’s_ what happened. You called the wedding off.”

Harper nodded. “Yeah. I did.”

“I’m sorry,” Abe replied apologetically. “I know how excited you were.”

“That’s the thing, though,” Harper sighed. “I haven’t been excited in a long time. For a while now, my wedding has just been this _thing_ I wanted to be over and done with. I thought it was because I wanted to be a wife instead of a bride, but maybe… maybe it was a sign, like I was never going to actually go through with it.”

“It’s not your fault alone, Harper,” he protested. “It takes two people to build a relationship. That stands to reason it takes two to ruin one, also.”

“Yeah, but he _asked_ ,” she revealed quietly. “He _asked_ me if we were all right, and I told him we were, and I _knew_ it was a lie. Maybe, if I’d told him the truth, then…”

“Then you could’ve broken up a few days earlier?” he interrupted dryly. “Chances are that there wasn’t any way for you to prevent this by the time you realized it was happening. You were always going to end up here.”

“…then maybe I’d _feel_ better,” she finished, glaring halfheartedly across the table. “Because right now, I feel like I led him on or something, and it – it’s not a good feeling.”

“You’re a Marine, Harper,” he reminded her. “He was never going to be entirely okay with that, and you were never going to be even _slightly_ okay with leaving it behind to be his little Stepford wife. You should never have to apologize for just being who you _are_.”

“Wow,” she murmured, glancing up at him with eyes that glimmered with amusement rather than sadness. “You somehow managed to sound like both Major Ferry and Captain Dobbins. I’m impressed.”

“Yeah. Maybe we should spend less time with our Defense counterparts,” he mused. “But that doesn’t make anything I said less true. You are who you are, and who you are is a good lawyer, and a good Marine, and, most importantly, a good _person_. Don’t let some _guy_ make you doubt that.”

“Thank you,” she murmured. “And I’m sorry, for dumping all this on you. I know you’ve got your own problems right now. It sucks, what that lawyer’s doing.”

“Yeah.” Abe glanced away guiltily. “There’s a chance I wasn’t entirely honest about every detail of the breakup.”

“Okay,” Harper replied slowly. “What details weren’t you honest about?”

“Well, we didn’t actually, uh, break up.” He shrugged helplessly in response to her pointed stare. “What were we supposed to do, Harper? It’s like you said, this thing could take years.”

“Yes, and if you disobey the orders of the only lawyer willing to touch this case with a ten-foot pole, chances are it’s never going _anywhere_ ,” she pointed out sharply. “Abe, if Swillice somehow finds out about this…”

“He’s not,” Abe assured her. “Okay? He’s not. We’re being careful.”

“The man is a _lawyer_ , Abe. One that sues people. It doesn’t matter how careful you’re being. If there’s something about you to find out, he’ll find it out.” She sighed exasperatedly. “This entire case could fall apart in five seconds if you make a wrong move.”

“You didn’t agree with the lawsuit in the first place, Harper,” he reminded her. “Not really.”

“I believe it opens us up for more liabilities than we can afford,” she corrected. “That doesn’t mean I don’t think Alex Hunt and her little girls deserve justice for what happened to them. I _do_ , and that’s why I’m telling you this is a very bad idea.”

“I know,” he admitted. “I know it is. I just – I don’t know what to do.”

“You need to think about what’s best for you,” she advised. “Not necessarily what you _want_ , but what’s _best_ , for both you and the Hunts. And then… well, then you do what you have to do.”

“You make it seem easy, Harper,” he muttered, though the words held no real heat.

“It’s not going to be easy. But it’ll be right. And I know you well enough to know that’s what really matters to you.”

“Yeah,” he agreed begrudgingly. “It is.”

“Yeah,” she echoed, smiling sympathetically. “We should probably order.”

“We really should. That waitress has looked over here angrily five times in the past three minutes.”

“She’s getting paid minimum wage to wait for us to discuss our miserable lives before she can come over and figure out what to feed us,” Harper defended the other woman laughingly. “I’d probably be glaring too.”

“Hey, Harper,” he began after the waitress – whose name was Kate, it turned out – left with their orders. “Thanks for the advice.”

She returned the smile. “Yeah. You too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love Abe to pieces, but I did kind of call him an idiot at the end of this episode. I still don't understand his relationship with Alex Hunt, and everything he's risking to carry on with it... I don't exactly get what he's doing here. I hope the next episode provides me with a bit more clarity, but I haven't really understood Abe since he started up with Alex several episodes back, so I'm not exactly super hopeful that'll change. When it comes to Harper... I actually expected things between her and Bard to already be over at the start of this episode (as evident in my last few Harper-centric works), so I'm not all that surprised by it. I think knowing they want different things and going on with a MARRIAGE still would've been more of a mistake than just calling off a WEDDING at the last minute. Still, I've become hooked on writing scenes between these two, so I couldn't resist the chance to do so after this episode, especially with so much to unload within both storylines.


End file.
